The Supreme Court has settled the controversy over the February 25, 2023 House of Representatives election in Mashi/Dutsi federal constituency of Katsina State.
The chief justice of Nigeria, Justice Oluwakayode Ariwoola, in his judgement declared Hon Salisu Yusuf Majigiri, as the duly elected representative of the constituency.
Majigiri, who was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), according to the result announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), scored 27,387 votes to defeat his closest rival, Mansir Ali of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who polled 20,596 votes.
But one of the PDP aspirants, Hon Nazifi Bello Yusuf, challenged the declaration of Majigiri by INEC as the winner of the poll at the Federal High Court sitting in Katsina.
The complainant asked the court to annul Majigiri’s victory on the ground that he did not participate in the party’s primary, proclaiming himself as the substantive candidate of the party in the May 22 primary election and the court ruled in his favour.
Not satisfied by the ruling of the court, Majigiri appealed the judgement at the Court of Appeal in Kaduna but the judgement was also against him. He later approached the Supreme Court challenging the judgement of the appellate court.
At the Supreme Court, the apex court struck out Yusuf’s suit against him on the grounds that it was filed outside the prescribed period of time as provided for in section 285 (9) of the 1999 constitution.
The five-man panel, presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, further ordered INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return given to Yusuf in consequence of the judgement of the Federal High Court.
He said, “The judgement of the trial court as affirmed by the lower court was set aside for lack of jurisdiction on the part of the Federal High Court to entertain the matter having been filed outside the prescribed period of time as provided by Section 285(9) of the constitution.”
The apex court also directed the nation’s electoral umpire to issue a Certificate of Return to the appellant, Majigiri, as the valid winner of the election of Dutsi/Mashi federal constituency for House of Representatives.
He said, “The judgment of the trial court as affirmed by the lower court was set aside for lack of jurisdiction on the part of the Federal High Court to entertain the matter having been filed outside the prescribed period of time as provided by Section 285(9) of the constitution.”
The apex court also directed the nation’s electoral umpire to issue a Certificate of Return to the appellant, Majigiri, as the valid winner of the election of Dutsi/Mashi federal constituency for House of Representatives.
A cost of N10,000,000 was awarded by the Supreme Court against the counsel to Yusuf and the PDP for making futile attempts to deny the conduct of the second primary before the court.
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